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COMING SOON: Am I the Only One… Who Hates My Job?

Hardcover-Book-MockUp

Some of you may not realize that this site along with a sister site, Planning to Save, were created during a confusing and troubling time in my career. I felt like everything else in my life was going well, but what I wanted to be doing for my life’s work was a mystery.

After doing a lot of soul searching, I discovered that I wasn’t the only one who felt the way I did.  Those I knew who didn’t feel fulfilled or were troubled with their jobs all seemed to have varying degrees of unhappiness and were unhappy in different ways. There was one common theme among them. It was the sense of loneliness and hopelessness. They felt like they didn’t know what to do with their lives or that things would never change and they just had to accept it.

I decided to compile the range of emotions I experienced in my different positions, including the most difficult moments, add in what I knew others have experienced and create an ebook. Not only did I want to express how I’ve felt through my career, but I wanted to write something that others could relate to and hopefully help them through a similar difficult time in their career.

Keep your eyes open in the coming months. There is some final editing to be done before it hits the electronic shelves!

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It’s a start

I’m the type of person who wants to see results quickly from the ideas I dream up. If there aren’t any results, then I assume my idea is not working and start to consider what my other options are. I’ve had to remind myself that my actions may not always produce immediate results.

If you’ve got a business idea though, there are some things that I’ve learned you can do to help speed up your ability to transition to new ideas more quickly. These are the “one time” items that after you do them, you don’t have to do them again.

The first one of these actions is filing for an LLC. It’s incredibly simple to do and in Ohio only costs $125. I decided to keep the name of mine relatively generic so that it doesn’t lead people to believe I only provide one type of service. For example, Adam’s Discount Trucks wouldn’t make much sense if I decide to start fixing computers. I decided on Adro Solutions, LLC after asking around for ideas.

Next, you get your federal EIN number. It’s free and can be filed for online in less than 10 minutes. While you could use your social security number for different business things, using an EIN protects you a little bit more.

Finally, open a free business checking account. I didn’t need to deposit anything into mine and there are no monthly fees. If I don’t make any money for 6 months, that’s okay.

So there you have it. That’s how I created a business and started a business checking account. While all of this could have probably been done in a week, I dragged my feet and it took a bit longer than it should have. But I won’t have to do it again so the next time I can get down to business faster!

If you have any questions on how to start your own business, send me an email through the contact form or post a comment below and I’ll help you get started with your dream.

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Bitten by a bug

I’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurship bug. I know, many people can swat it away when it comes buzzing, but as much as I’ve tried over the past few years, this time the venom isn’t going away.

I know it’s not for everyone, but the more I’ve explored where I want to be in a few years, I realized a couple of things. I want to spend more time with my family. I want to take the kids to school, volunteer in their classroom, and work outside on the back porch.

The biggest thing is to be able to take full personal responsibility for my life and the life of my family. How much I work, how hard I work, and how much I make is up to me. Personal responsibility is a funny thing these days. Every wants to do what they want, except when it comes to having to take care of themselves. That’s when they want someone else to do it for them.

I’ve been filling my head with all kinds of things like books, podcasts and blog posts. I’m formulating plans and I’m excited to try new things. I’ve taken a values assessment and oddly enough the two things that motivate me the most are financial rewards and altruism. Two things that seem to be in opposite directions, but can really complement each other quite well. If I do things with greater financial rewards, I can work less and give more of my life to others.

The only thing that I don’t have is a lowered risk meter. While I almost got a perfect score in the Entrepreneurship Quizzes book, the one I answered no two was taking big risks. There are ways to lower the risk like vetting ideas, making a plan, and saving some money up, but it’s still a risk nonetheless.

I guess if you’ve ever wondered what you should be doing with your life, have you ever considered working for yourself? I’m going to be releasing an ebook that I’ve written over the past few months soon. It won’t help you determine if entrepreneurship is right for you, but it may help you if you’ve been struggling in your career lately. Keep your eyes out for it!

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What is your time worth?

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to what my time is worth. I would guess that the majority of people work something like a 40 hour work week. How much of that time is actually productive? How much of it is spent “putting in your time”? How much work are you getting done compared to others in the same position?

The reason I’ve been thinking about this is because I work in the IT field. In almost every IT position, tracking your time is involved. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is usually for billing your clients. The other is for tracking how much time has been spent on a project to determine if the estimates were correct.

If you’re paid for your time, you are making the assumption that your time is as valuable as other people being paid the same amount per hour. For example, lets say you’ve got a task and it takes most people 8 hours to complete it. However, you’re good at what you do and you can complete it in 4 hours. You can do the task twice in the same amount of time that it takes most people to do it in 8 hours. You’re essentially getting paid half what the other person is getting paid to do the same task. Another way to look at it is that you’re doing the twice the work as someone else but getting paid the same amount.

When it comes to keeping track of your time for a project, the same type of problem comes up. If you can get more of the project done in the same amount of time as someone else, then when you both record 8 hours towards the project, technically more work was completed by you than the other person. Eight hours is not a good indication of the amount of work involved. You could have a team of 3 highly effective people or 6 standard people. When the project is completed, the standard people will record more time towards the project than the highly effective people.

Why does any of this really matter? Well, it’s frustrating for one thing. It sure would be nice to leave after completing the standard amount of work that most people complete. You could even work a little extra to go above and beyond. However, sitting there the full day to collect a paycheck can be exhausting when you’ve got your work done.

Another big reason is because being paid for your time is what can keep you from being super successful. As author Dan Miller wrote, “Hourly pay will keep you poor“. If you’re good at what you do and you can get people to pay you by the project or task, you can significantly increase your income. Even if you decide to keep your day job, you could potentially do your “efficient” work on the side and make a ton of extra cash.

To put it simply, being paid for what you do and not how long it takes you to do it opens doors to time freedom and more money! Think about it.

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The Future is Bright

You may be struggling as I have been with different things in my life, but I want you to remember that the future is bright. Your life is made up of several different components at one time. Even though your job may not be what you want it to be and it could be incredibly depressing, you have other areas of your life that may be great. There is usually something else that you can cling onto to get you through the tough times.

I usually look at my life as seven different spokes of a wheel.

  • Financial
  • Spiritual
  • Career
  • Social
  • Physical
  • Family
  • Personal Development

Usually if one area is lacking, you might have a bumpy ride, but you can usually get through it. It’s the time of the year to set goals in each of these areas to make your 2014 better than your 2013.

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eBook

While this may not help people in finding their purpose in their work, I’m working on an eBook that helps people to realize they are not alone when trying to determine what their purpose is.

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Progress

I can see progress being made. Excellent progress. Many things moving in the right direction at the same time. Some things will take longer to develop, but if only some of them do, it will still be wonderful to achieve some goals.

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Future Story

So, for our LifeGroup, we had to write what we want our story to be in the future. Below is mine.

I want to raise Christ following kids that rely on God, believe anything is possible and don’t believe the lies of this world. I want to be someone they want to be around when we’re all older.

I want to do work that is productive, meaningful and profitable. I want my work to be an inspiration to others.

I want my marriage to be envied by others and to set the bar incredibly high for those that my daughters date.

I want to feel that in all things I’m growing closer to God and relying on him to provide. I want to recognize that I exist because he allows me to. As long as I’m on this world, he has something for me to do.

I want to honor god with my finances but not let others know about it.

I want to be someone who builds others up and after they’ve been around me, they feel better about themselves.

I wan to a live a life where my I wants are I ams.

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Same Boat

The more I research online to learn more about my career, passions, strengths and more, the more I realize that there are a lot of people out there in the same boat as me. They want something more, something that helps others, and leave the cubicle to have a more complete life. It’s encouraging, and also saddening at the same time.